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Nov 15th-30th, 2009**
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Don't ask why, but I got this hairy idea to make myself a Blue Fairy outfit. No pattern, just me trying to fit myself without even a dummy my size. This is probably going to be a disaster, but I'm sure to have fun along the way!

( Lots of pictures behind the cut. )

I'm sitting at home while hubby and oldest daughter are at the neighbour's picnic. SA was there with me up until a few minutes ago, when she started to beg for her blankie and her bed. So I brought her home and put her to bed. Now, no body has posted anything new on LJ in the last 24 hours, I have nothing to harvest in Farmville, and even Facebook is a bit dead tonight. Long weekend, and all, I guess.

So I sit here now, with a few bits left to do on the kids Halloween costumes, contemplating whether or not I want to sew, watch TV, or sneak back over next door for a cup of coffee with the neighbours.

I think TV wins, for now.

( Some pictures behind the cut to speak 1000 words. )
Tonight I'm working on the skirt. It is currently pleated and pinned to the bodice. Tomorrow I'll finish it up and get ready to hem the skirt.

The last few days have been pretty boring to write about in a diary, but I got quite a lot done. First, I cut decorative "slashes" in the banding for my bodice, measuring out each piece separately (two up the front openings, two across the neckline, two over the shoulders, one across the back). I learned that this cotton I am using has a very hefty weave, that even my sharpest scissors have trouble with. I'm not sure I like the look of the open "cuts" rather than just 1-line slashes, but it definitely does recreate the look of the woodcuts. (Pictures to follow soon). I also had to do a bit of math to figure out how the angle of the fabric would fit, and how the folded piece would need to be cut so as not to show through the slashes. I then hand-sewed them all onto the bodice, attached the sleeves, sewed on the closures (hooks and eyes from under my bust to my waist, and loops for a black ribbon over my bust).

I then tried on the whole thing with the hemd again. I'm about 90% satisfied with it. The neck opening seems wide, but I couldn't see myself in the mirror properly...so it might be fine. The sleeves are definitely a bit too loose. Luckily I didn't finish the seam yet, so I'll take them in. I marked my waist, and today will be spent prepping and attaching the skirts.

Realized last night that my front and back pieces don't line up along the bottom if I line up the armscye lines...so I trimmed an inch off the fronts. I'll still have to shorten the bodice later, so this is not a big risk.

I think my armscye might actually be too big on this dress. In trials, it feels a bit loose, and I'm worried that I'm going to have my typical problem with anything I make - the shoulders will slide off. Not sure how to fix that yet, but thoughts are either to tighten the sleeves, or shorten the shoulder straps, or a combination of both.

Last night I cut out the skirt, made a pocket (another new thing I've never tried in an SCA dress before), and sewed the lining into 1/2 of the bodice.

I am so happy with my last Kampfrau gown, that I am making another. The "new" factor in this diary is the fact that I'm making it entirely out of linen, instead of wool.

So far, I've made the sleeves (took about 45 minutes, really) in a plain style. Since I've heard that linen doesn't slash well, I've decided to not risk it on the sleeves of this gown, and instead copy the style on several woodcuts of a plain sleeve with slashed banding instead.

Because of the plain style I chose, I cut the sleeves with the grain, not the bias, to save fabric. I also gave myself an extra 1/4" so I have room to fit the big puffy sleeves of the hemd and still have room to bend my elbows. In my preliminary fitting, this works fine.

I then hunted high and low for the sloper pieces I'd used on the grey wool gown from my last diary, and could not find them. (Or, I think I found them, but they were unmarked, so I wasn't sure). So I cut out new cotton pieces from the pattern again, fit them by taking off about 3/4" on each side seam (under my arms), then cut out the pieces. I'm using medium-weight linen for the outer layer, interlining and lining. Since I'm small-chested, I don't need much support in front, so hopefully the 3 layers will be enough.

I must admit, now that I've cut and put the interlining on the outer layer, I'm not so certain this will be a good choice. The fabric seems a bit too thin or weak - I'm afraid I might not get the "right look" when it is on. I will put the rest of the bodice together tonight, attach the sleeves next, and then see how it goes from there.

On another note - now that I've made something like 6 dresses in various German styles, I notice it goes MUCH faster each time. :) I learn something new each time, and I'm eager to get this one finished to see how my "all linen" experiment turns out!

If you are a feminist, and believe that women and men are equal, then don't make a point of counting "how many women are carrying heavy things" versus "how many men are carrying heavy things", because then you are no longer a feminist, but a hypocrite.

The farther away from Pennsic I get, the less I want to write about it. Since I don't want to type a lot tonight either, here are a few highlites:

- For the first time ever, I did NOT go anywhere near the lake. No reason to, really - I didn't know anyone camping down there, didn't attend any parties, and didn't get to take my "almost" traditional walk with my best friend this year.

- Some drama happened - mostly to do with people being hypocritical, which if you know me, is my BIGGEST pet peeve. However, it didn't last long and didn't ruin my vacation, so that's all fine.

- SA had a small accident; she fell against the bed and cut open a small hole above her right eyebrow. Being a head-wound, it bled more than should be allowed for a mother to witness, but wasn't a serious injury. We had it looked at and cleaned by the professional doctors on-site anyway, just to be safe. Our wonderful neighbour, Ivan, had steri-strips in his "crash kit" and was kind enough to apply them for us. They are still on, waiting (on his advice) for the skin underneath to heal to the point where they fall off on their own. Other than that, all the bruising has healed and she seems to be fine.

- NJ had both good and bad times: I think she is jealous of E and G's friend across the street and how much fun they all have together. Sometimes being the only girl in a group of kids sucks. However, when she was able to play with them, she had a wonderful time. She didn't want to come home, and I take that as a good sign. :)

- This year we received a wonderful gift of a new, wrought iron, beautiful tripod for over the fire. Thank you so much, again, Fritzi! You rock in many ways. :D (Even though I know your motives were mostly selfish, it doesn't matter...the gift is still awesome!)

Other than that, it was a good weather-war, with only a couple of days of rain (while I was there). Then warm and dusty til the end...which I prefer to hot and sticky. :)

I thought I'd warn my journal that I won't be posting for the next 10+ days while I'm at Pennsic.

Cuz yeah, it would really miss me.

Remember that Kampfrau gown I've been working on? (Check here for the starting post: http://jtrumbore.livejournal.com/94910.html)

I know it has been a LONG time since I posted my "mostly done" post...but I finally got the whole ensemble done and had a chance to wear it somewhere that a friend had a camera!

So, ( here it is on )

Ok, everyone out there...please go right now and replace all your CF lightbulbs with energy-burning incandescents. Go shoot your Hybrid car, and fill up your trucks and SUVs and drive around town until you empty 3 tanks of gas.

I'm FREEZING! Time to warm up this planet! It is freaking JULY, people, and I'm in a sweater and my fingers are like ice cubes. WTFBBQ!?!?!?!

First lesson: never post to your LJ that work is going to be good and ahead of schedule. Cuz Friday? SUCKED. Found out that the vendor's little install script only runs on Linux and Sun Solaris...and our IT Services group only support HP/UX. Heh. I lit up quite a few phone lines to bitch about THAT little stunt. Anyway, we'll find out Monday whether or not this means a 6 week or a 1 year delay in my project. *sigh*

Second lesson: when the cookbook says to use a candy thermometer - don't try to use a digital meat thermometer, even if it has a "candy" setting.
Trying to make fondant at home for the first time in my life yesterday. Each attempted used 3 cups of sugar. I tried 3 times before I finally got it right...and thank God DH was helping because otherwise I would've thrown the third attempt down the drain too...but he rescued it. The method that worked was:
Put the marble slab in the freezer.
Boil 1 cup of water.
Take it off the heat, stir in the sugar til its "mostly" dissolved.
Put it back on the heat and bring to a boil at mid-heat (setting 6 on my stove).
Sprinkle on 1/4 tsp of Cream of Tartar, stir it up really quickly, slap in the candy thermometer and turn the heat down to about 4.
Let it boil for about 5-10 minutes, slowly turning up the heat to 7.
Take the marble slab out of the freezer and put the metal cookie tray on top of it on the counter. This makes the tray nice and cool.
When the thermometer reads 235, start dropping bits of the liquid into cold water. When it stays in a malleable clump in the water, then its at "soft ball candy" stage, then pour it onto the cookie sheet (face UP, not inverted as the recipe book says).
Wait until the liquid turns almost solid (you can push a dent into it with your finger).
Use a STIFF spatula (not a floppy rubber one) to mix for a long dang time...more than 10 minutes, I think. Eventually it will turn into crumbly sugar that is white.
Then knead with the confectioners sugar until it becomes a smooshy lump that you can pick up in a solid ball.
So, I THINK I have fondant in my fridge now. :)
Unfortunately, this killed 3 hours of my day yesterday, so not much else got done.

So, as you may remember, I'm now running a project for my company that is very important, highly visible. I spent most of the past month spinning my wheels and getting nothing done.

Finally today, I had the chance to get ahead of schedule. I worked with a vendor rep to install most of our Training environment server software. It took all day, especially with the hurdles we had to overcome to install bits on the Unix database server that usually we don't have any access to. Fortunately, there is a process for getting a user account, a home directory, and the Reflections-X software we needed. Fortunately, I was able to get the normal turn-around time reduced to under an hour. Its good to "know who to call" sometimes.

All this means that I should be able to deliver on 2 milestones at least a week ahead of schedule. This is good, because my Validation team is making my life very difficult by being a week behind in releasing documents for review and approval. *sigh* I wish I could just say "make this happen by this date" without having the crack the whip every day to make sure people are on task.

I also interviewed a potential new team member today who sounds very skilled and talented, but would.not.stop.talking! Sheesh...Interview tip: Know When To Shut Up. He'll probably get the job anyway, but I hope his verbal landslide was only a nervous habit today.

I hope tomorrow goes as well as today, because if it does, I'll be in very good shape going into next week.

So in the last few weeks, I've been very busy and very bad about updating my journal! I've made several status updates on Facebook, but I realize now that if I look at those in 6 months, I won't have a fricken clue what they mean today.

So, I need to get some details down before I forget! This might be a bit random, based on my stream of consiousness.

First, my vegetable/fruit gardens: About 2 weeks ago, the strawberries started to be ready to pick. We went out every day to pick whatever was ripe at the time, and I ended up with enough to make 12 jars of jam, and get another huge bowl of fresh berries to eat. Unfortunately, we also had about a third of the berries grow rotten, which according to my research means we have a fungal infection in the mulch under them. This is something we have to treat now and probably forever. Plans are: keep cutting off infected stems as we find them, pull up a few plants to allow more air-flow between them, provide support for the plants so the berries don't sit on the ground, and get an anti-fungal spray from Gardens Alive! next spring.

The veggies are growing well, too, even in spite of the huge hail storm that swept through 2 days ago and ripped the leaves up on every plant we have. One broccoli was toppled, so we'll be eating that one tonight. All the other plants look like they will recover. We've been harvesting radishes for about a week now, and they're yummy! The tomatos and sugar snap peas have flowers on them. The bush beans are falling over...notes for next year: almost everything we planted this year need some kind of support. Also, don't plant oregano behind broccoli. :) It is in the shadow and not growing as well as it could.

NJ's ballet classes are done for the year, but her recital is still coming up this weekend. Friday night is dress rehersal, and Saturday afternoon is the presentation. Also going on this weekend - Landsknecht, our SCA camping event at the Homestead. So, I've got to drive up to Lehighton, set up camp, drive down to the dress rehersal, and back up to Lehighton Friday night. Then Saturday at lunch time, head BACK to the recital (in Souderton), not returning back to the event until dinner time. Then pack up and come home Sunday morning! And poor DH is going to miss all this, keeping SA and Cleo with him at the event so they don't disrupt the recital. Oh yeah, I also need to organize the raffle going on at the recital. HA HA HA! Will I EVER learn to say NO?

My first book club meeting was REALLY fun. I love our club! We have such a diverse membership of great people! I can't wait for the next meeting. :)
The best part of the night was when my wonderful sis-in-law gave me her Princess House Vintage Garden tea set...pot, cups, saucers, cream/sugar containers and serving caddy. She is TEH AWESOME! :D Now I can't wait to have my next tea party :D

Speaking of which...I will be serving tea to our guests over the July long weekend. We're having a weekend-long party with close friends and their children...so it should be a fun-filled chaotic weekend, and I'm really excited about it! But it means that coming home from the event this weekend cannot result in our usual "dump all the camping crap in the house until the next event". Nope, we'll actually have to CLEAN IT UP this time. Can't have our guests think we're complete slobs!

I can't remember what else I wanted to discuss, so I guess I'll wrap this up now and come back later for more updates.

Don't ask why, but I served "afternoon tea" today to/with my SIL. It was so fun! She made the sandwiches (smoked salmon/dill/cream cheese and cucumber/butter), and I spent the last 467 hours of my life making petit fours for the first time ever.

First I made the "Lady Cake" ...never again. It was weird to assemble, and required too many mixing bowls and blenders. But it was a rich, lightly lemony cake, that I then baked in a 3/4" deep cookie tray (my cheater jelly roll pan).

This morning I sliced the cake into thirds then split each piece in half for stuffing. Then I made "true Buttercream" filling...which I've never made before. It involved making "simple syrup" (water, sugar, and cream of tartar), boiling that...pouring it into egg yolks to cook them while blending them...then blending 24 tablespoons of butter into this mixture, one tablespoon at a time. It took nearly half an hour, but MAN was it yummy. Then I spread that in the middle of the cake, put it between two cookie trays to compress it, and refrigerated for about 4 hours.

I wanted to make fondant for the top, but after I looked up the recipe, I realized I needed to start that last Thursday. :\ Instead I decided to do a chocolate glaze...again, which I've never made before. So I bought 6oz of bittersweet baking chocolate...got home and realized I needed 8oz, so I tried to make up the difference with cocoa and oil. This resulted in "moon sand" chocolate...NOT a glaze. *sigh* So, a quick run to the store, spend $5, get more bakers chocolate, this time made a better glaze...though it was a tad too thick in the end.

I cut the cake into shapes...this was an adventure too since the cake was sticky and wouldn't come out of the cookie cutters cleanly. Then I spread warmed strawberry jam on the cake/buttercream shapes, cooled it til the jam solidified again, then spread the chocolate glaze over top and let them harden.

In the end...YUMMMY! But OH SO much work! Luckily, I only used up 1/3 of the cake/buttercream layers, so I can do this again with much LESS work involved. :) Combos I'd like to try:

- thin layer of buttercream over the cake, and vanilla fondant over top
- orange marmalade over the cake, and chocolate glaze, thinner this time, over top

Guests coming to 4th of July picnic, beware - you might be asked to try these out :)

I don't post here much any more, but I do read a lot. I was reading today my sister-in-law's blog posts entitled "Things about fat people you never knew". It inspired me to write this:

All of that, I knew. :)

Now, some of you who don't know me IRL may not know that I am a small lady. I've been under-weight my entire life. I can't gain weight. Breastfeeding my daughters made it even worse...I think at this point, my weight is literally what bones, skin, muscles and blood weigh in a 5'5" human, because I have nothing else in me...though I'm trying.

And I am amazed at how many things on my SIL's list apply to skinny people as well. Not that this is an "all about me" thing...I love her post and I'm trying to spread the word about it, but I think that everyone could do with a bit of tolerance-expanding knowledge.

For example:
1) Skinny people don't pull out skinny people to see what we "should" look like either. Its nice to know that we could spend thousands of dollars on a warddrobe to look like a magazine picture - but guess what? Nobody who isn't a pop star can actually live in those clothes. They aren't comfortable, they don't fit well, and you certainly cannot play with Play-Do in them!

2) We don't subsist on water and salads. Most skinny people are cursed with an "overactive motabilism" that means that no matter what we eat, we don't gain weight. I have tried to subsist on Big Macs and ice cream, and guess what? I was unhealthy AND underweight. Don't be jealous here - unhealthy eating is unhealthy eating, no matter what your weight is.

3) We don't spend 12 hours a day "in the gym" - but we probably should. Everyone who is underweight is at risk for weakened bones, and actually needs to exercise more than average and over- weight people. The muscles we have don't need to work hard to support our frames, and so we end up with more fragile bodies.

4) We don't want to wear belly-exposing 14-year old's clothing, but we often have to. Stores carry sizes 6-12 on average. What happens if you wear a size 4? You have to go to the 2 specialty shops in existance that cater to small people, and spend $100 just for a pair of pants that don't sag off your hips, or $50 on a shirt that fits across the shoulders but actually leaves room for breasts (most 14-year old's clothing assumes a flat chest).

5) We aren't sluts just because we're skinny. We don't want to be hit on by everyone just because of our looks. We aren't trying to take away the attention of men from other women...we're just trying to live our lives, too.

6) We have feelings, too. And assuming that we think fat people are disgusting or need to exercise or must be like us, is offensive and rude. We don't live our lives believing our body is the perfect type, its not. We don't go around proud that everyone wants to be "like us" - in fact, we want to shout at you DON'T DO IT!! You shouldn't want to be what you aren't - be proud to be your size, as long as you're _healthy_. Don't binge-diet, don't hate yourself, don't take MY body and hold it against me. Don't assume that I won't be hurt if you say "you're skinny, you don't understand", cuz I will.

So the whole point of both these posts? Don't make assumptions about someone's personality because of their body weight. :)

1) That you can completely ruin chicken on the BBQ in less than 1 minute.
2) That burning green beans smell EXACTLY like someone's smoking pot in the house.
3) That putting on food to cook and then playing outside with your chidren (bubbles, soccer, baseball, and tag) leads to an unplanned trip to McDonald's for dinner.

4) That butter instead of shortening makes my already fabulous banana bread EVEN BETTER! I didn't think it was possible, but YUM! NOM NOM NOM.

5) That adding fruit to pancakes is not popular with the under 30 crowd in this house...but for the over 30 crowd? More NOM NOM NOM. :D

Also this weekend:
I planted bush and pole beans, cucumbers, cantelopes, and more carrots and radishes.
We weeded the iris and most of the other beds.
NJ learned how to cast a fishing line in the backyard. SA learned to count to four. We all got lots of sun and fresh air, so

HOORAY FOR SPRING! :)

So I went out in the wet jungle-like grass to inspect my garden this morning. We've had nothing but rain for 3 months...er, days...and I wanted to see how over-grown the weeds had become.

I was very excited to see 4 neat rows of seedlings in the "Radishes" square. Hooray!!

Last week sometime - I now forget the exact day - I took the opportunity of being at home to get my eldest DD out there, and we planted 16 carrots and 16 radishes in 2 square foot sections. Last weekend, I also purchased (yes, I know - there was a mixup and the free ones I was supposed to get didn't materialize) two tomato plants. One was free from our local florist, and its called "Dan's Favorite", so who the heck knows what that will taste like. It is a regular old red, big, tomato style. The other is a sweet grape tomato which NJ loves. I also started four more sugar snap peas. Out of the first four, only two have started to grow. The other two are either very late, or aren't gonna make it at all. *shrug* Oh well.

The broccoli are doing great, there are four oregano and two parsley that have been out there for a while and are thriving, and one basil plant that looks a bit pale, but seems to be ok.

This weekend will be spent mostly weeding. I think the plan is to start another batch of carrots and radishes in about a week and a half. Then I also get to start the beans, cucumber and cantelopes. After that, no new plants will be added - it'll just be maintenance until harvest time!

So far, my experiment is going well. It hasn't really taken too much time to care for this garden, and the fruits (rather, vegetables) of my labour are well worth the investment of that time. Hopefully the weeding necessary to keep this bed growing won't make me change my mind. :)

So, here I am another year older. Yay me! I had come to post something profound, but got completely distracted by my friends list...especially Rustymarble's drunk post from last night...too freakin funny!

So instead, you get my rambling. Thanks so much to my in-laws for yummy cake and Jo-ann's gift cards after dinner tonight! You guys rawk. :) Thanks to my hubby for putting up with my pizza craving tonight, and for his much appreciated, though half-asleep mumbled, birthday wishes at 7:13am. Thanks to my daughters for cuddles and hugs and home-made cards. :D Now I understand why my own mother loved my craptastic attempts at art. And thanks to my mother for waking me up at 7:12am to sing me "Happy Birthday" - it made me smile AND got me to work on time. (*oops*) Thanks to my sis for the card and the birthday wishes, too. Last, but not least, thanks to my bestest friend for the lunch-time call to wish me a happy day.

I'm so lucky to have a wonderful family and set of friends who care about me.

Thanks, everyone. I love you all!